Nite Flyte Cover 04

This is the cover I mentioned last week. It's for a fanzine that will appear inside the SNICKER SNACK APA. This is actually just my contribution to the issue, but I like to do a cover for each issue in which I contribute material.

I started work on a large illustration with a lot of cool stuff off to the side, but the more I looked at it the more I realized that the skull was more effective when seen up close. So, this illustration is what I came up with. I particularly enjoyed inking the background – and I even think I did a pretty good job with the candle glows. But when I finished it, I really didn't like it. There's just something about the creature that isn't interesting to me.

© 2019 Mike Mitchell

So, even though this design was 100% finished, I decided to create a sexy little "red hot chili imp" and I was going to place her on the skull in some sort of sexy pin-up pose. Take a look at the next post and let me know what you think!

But... alas, her turn at stardom 'twas not to be!

I just ran out of time. I'm behind schedule on creating a cover for a new Galaxy Prime book, so even though I have the imp character ready to go, I just don't have time to create a new illustration. So, I went with my original cover (mailed out today, in fact).

Oh well, that's just the way it goes. Perhaps I can find use of her in another project or illustration. Time will tell.

Happy Halloween - Afterlife with Archie

Happy Halloween!

It's time for witches to fly and the dead to rise!

Let the wind blow, let the mad seethe, 

The time has come for the dead to breathe!

It's HALLOWEEN, folks! Time to get your scare on! Especially if you're from Riverdale and wander into my front yard and drink in this scene of terror!

Yeah, that's all-American boy Archie Andrews battling
his former best-pal Jughead Jones.

And yes, these are life-size figures in my
front yard, illuminated by black light.

Machete-in-hand, Archie will avenge the fallen members of his gang.

Hot Dog is just looking for a bone to gnaw...

Even the rotten shall fall to Juggie's inhuman hunger!
I guess there's just no accounting for taste!

Most of the scene is illuminated by some SERIOUS black light (I'm not kidding, my last year I needed 7 black lights to light up this scene, but my new 36W black light spotlight is so powerful that it handles almost all of the power. I am using it and only one small 10W bulb as a fill-light for Archie's britches.

There are also night lights inside the masks. And a small misting of orange florescent paint on Archie's mask and hands to make them illuminate in the UV lighting. Until I added that (and the three night lights in Archie's head), he wasn't showing up at night (and since tick-or-treat is after dark, that's very important.

Halloween 2014: Afterlife with Archie

This year, to celebrate one of my favorite holidays, I decided to create a large display in my yard based on my favorite comic book, AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE. To this end, I created a graveyard complete with tombstones for all the members of The Archies, and even created a life-sized figure of Jughead as the King of the Zombies!

Here it is by the light of day...
It is roped off with purple lights. The backdrop is painted plywood.
Since I took this photo, I have added a shelf to the back of the
wall so I can rest two pumpkins on it.

And at night it comes alive with black light.

Not even poor Betty could escape.

The two pumpkins up front rest on a small "brick" wall.

Looks like our boy's been eating ribs... but whose?

There are four black lights used to illuminate the scene.

And Jughead is lit from within

I got the Jughead mask as Halloween Express for about $20.
The rest of the pieces came from a Dollar Store, including the hands,
lights inside the hands (just strings of orange mini lights)
and the night light inside Juggie's head.

My Wife carved these "Funkins" a few years ago. Slowly but surely, we add
a new on each year. I'll actually pull out a lot more tonight when the
Trick-or-Treaters start making their rounds.

The tombstones are made of two flat Coke cartons that are duct taped
together and then painted with black paint for daylight, and
highlighted with glow-in-the-dark paint for night.

Almost everything here is custom made I did buy the Jughead mask (and, of course, all the paints, lights and plastic body parts), but the rest were created by me. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the display, although there are a few additional touches I'd like to add. But, the boils and ghouls will be here this evening, so the Riverdale sign and other touches will have to wait until next year.